PNEUMA app icon

PNEUMA

A breathing voice instrument for iPhone, iPad and Mac.

PNEUMA is VISCERA's calm sibling: the same granular engine, tuned for air and light. Touch your recording and it blooms into a soft pad. With NOTE, every finger plays a whole chord, and twelve sympathetic strings ring along.

PNEUMA on the App StoreiPhone, iPad and MacHow to play ↓

What it does

Wave or grains

Scrub through your recording and let it bloom into a pad, or switch to long, soft grains that fuse into a cloud.

A chord under every finger

With NOTE, each finger plays a chord of the scale, built on your recording's own note. Twelve sympathetic strings ring along.

Pad sounds

Use the recording itself or one of six vintage-style synths, vocoded by your voice so they still breathe like it.

Six effects

AIR, BLOOM, GLASS, DRIFT, DEPTH and GRACE.

Four sound slots

Record or import up to four sounds. They all play together, each with its own settings.

MIDI keyboards

Play it from a USB, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi MIDI keyboard, MPE included. Keys play notes or whole chords.

Loops and MIDI files

Record a loop of up to a minute and play over it, or open a MIDI file and let PNEUMA play it.

In your music app

Also an Audio Unit instrument for GarageBand, Logic Pro for iPad, AUM, Cubasis and Loopy Pro, plus PNEUMA FX, an effect that records any instrument or input straight into a slot. Nothing extra to install.

On your Mac

Same purchase on Macs with Apple silicon: play it in Logic Pro, GarageBand, MainStage, Ableton Live and REAPER.

How to play

  1. Load a sound

    Tap the mic in the middle to record into a slot, tap it again to stop. Or tap an empty slot to import an audio file. Up to four sounds, one per slot.

  2. Play the pad

    Touch and move: left to right scrubs through your recording. Rest a finger and it blooms into a pad. Up and down plays whatever that slot's Y lane controls. Use as many fingers as you like.

  3. Wave or grains

    The button left of SAVE switches between WAVE (scrubbing, as above) and grains: long, soft grains of the recording that fuse into a cloud wherever you touch.

  4. Chords

    With Y on NOTE, each finger plays a chord of the slot's scale, built on the recording's own note: root, third, fifth and seventh. Every grain lands on a chord tone, and twelve sympathetic strings ring along. No clear pitch, a wrong guess, or another key? Tap Root in the slot and choose the note yourself.

  5. Tilt the device

    Tilting left and right drives each slot's two TILT lanes.

  6. Every slot is its own instrument

    All loaded slots play together, each through its own settings, so one touch can do something different on every slot.

  7. Open a slot

    Tap a loaded slot to open it. Trim, preview and set its gain; choose what Y and the two TILT lanes control; pick its scale and pad sound; tune it and shape it with the sliders. “Apply to all four slots” in a lane's list sets every slot at once.

  8. Pad sounds

    A slot's pad can be the recording itself or a vintage-style synth: String Machine, Warm Poly, PWM Chorus, Brass Swell, Tape Choir or FM Glass. The synth plays your chords, vocoded by the recording so it still breathes like your voice. Blend mixes the two.

  9. Hold a chord

    Turn on hold (the lock), play, and let go: the sound keeps going. Pause stops it and brings it back exactly where it was.

  10. Play it from a keyboard

    Plug in a USB or Bluetooth MIDI keyboard, or connect over Wi-Fi. Every key plays all loaded slots at that note, in the slot's scale; the slot's root sits on its own key. Keys play notes, or chords like a finger (MIDI settings). Notes play where you last touched the pad; in WAVE they bloom straight into the pad. The keys button shows the full MIDI map, MPE included.

  11. Loops and MIDI files

    Tap LOOP at the bottom left of the pad and play. Tap again to close the loop: what you played is recorded as sound, tilt and all, and goes round while you play over it. Your fingers and tilt only change what you play on top, never the loop. Tap to stop it, tap again to play it, and tap × to clear it. Loops can be up to a minute long. Tap MIDI, next to LOOP, to open a MIDI file (.mid). It goes on LOOP in place of a loop: tap LOOP to play it through your loaded sounds, and again to stop it. Press and hold LOOP to record a new loop or, with a MIDI file, to loop it or play it once, pick one instrument from it under Part (a melody or bass line works best, as PNEUMA plays six MIDI notes at once) and set its speed. A MIDI file chosen from a slot goes to LOOP too. SAVE keeps the loop or MIDI file with the config.

  12. Use it in your music app

    PNEUMA is also an Audio Unit instrument, installed together with the app, on iPhone, iPad and Mac. Its effect version, PNEUMA FX, records any instrument or input in your music app straight into a slot. See “In your music app” and “Record into it: PNEUMA FX” below.

In your music app

The PNEUMA Audio Unit comes with the app; there's nothing else to install. Open PNEUMA once after installing or updating, then add it as an instrument:

GarageBand
New song → swipe to External → Audio Unit Extensions → PNEUMA.
Logic Pro for iPad
New track → Software Instrument → tap the instrument → AU Instruments → Æsboe → PNEUMA.
AUM
Tap + on a channel → Audio Unit Extensions → Instruments → Æsboe: PNEUMA.
Cubasis
Add an instrument track → instrument → AU Instruments → PNEUMA.
Loopy Pro
Add an Audio Unit → Instruments → PNEUMA.
Mac: 5 music apps
On a Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or later), get PNEUMA from the Mac App Store with the same Apple ID: it's the same purchase. Open it once. PNEUMA then works as an instrument in Logic Pro, GarageBand, MainStage, Ableton Live (11.3 or later) and REAPER.
Logic Pro · GarageBand · MainStage
Add a Software Instrument track → AU Instruments → Æsboe → PNEUMA.
Ableton Live
Check that Audio Units are on in Settings → Plug-Ins, then Browser → Plug-Ins → Audio Units → Æsboe → PNEUMA. For MPE, right-click the device and choose Enable MPE Mode.
REAPER
Insert a virtual instrument → AU → Æsboe: PNEUMA.
Not on Mac
Cubase, Pro Tools and Bitwig Studio can't load Audio Units from App Store apps, and PNEUMA doesn't run on Intel Macs or Windows.
In the plugin
Tap an empty slot to load a sound, or CONFIGS to open a config you saved in the app with SAVE. Play it from your music app's keyboard, a MIDI keyboard, or the pad. Your project remembers PNEUMA's sounds and settings.
Not in the list?
Open PNEUMA once, close the music app completely (swipe it away) and open it again. Still missing: restart the device.
Record into it: PNEUMA FX

PNEUMA FX is the effect version of the plugin, installed together with the app. Put it after any instrument or audio input in your music app and record what comes in straight into a slot, ready to play with MIDI or the pad. It works in music apps that can send MIDI to an effect, such as AUM and Loopy Pro.

  • Add Æsboe: PNEUMA FX as an effect after an instrument or audio input, and route MIDI to it. In AUM, insert it on a channel after a synth or the mic input; in Loopy Pro, add it as an effect with MIDI.
  • Tap REC IN at the bottom left of the pad and play. Tap it again to stop. A take can be up to a minute long and stops by itself at one minute.
  • The take goes into the first empty slot, or replaces the selected one when all four are full. Like a take from the mic, it's trimmed and its root note is found, so it's ready to play.
  • THRU, on by default, lets the input play on underneath. Your music app's bypass passes the input straight through.
Controls
Play
Plays the selected slot through at its real speed, with all its effects.
Pause
Pauses held sound and Play; tap again to resume. With hold on, Play and Preview pause the held sound for you.
Record
The cassette, right of the mic. Records everything you hear to a 24-bit WAV, then opens the share sheet.
Hold
Keeps notes sounding after you lift your fingers.
Clear
Silences everything and resets the sound settings. Trim, tuning, roots, scales, pad sounds and lane choices stay.
Wave / grains
Switches how the pad plays your recording.
SAVE / OPEN
Saves all four slots, their audio and settings, and what's on LOOP as a config; up to 12. OPEN loads one; swipe left on it to delete it.
MIDI settings
Connected keyboards, Bluetooth pairing, network MIDI, notes or chords per key, pitch bend range, MPE and the MIDI map. The dot blinks when MIDI arrives.
Swim
A calm game: you are a light. Take in smaller lights to grow, and each one sings a piece of your recording in the level's chord.
What the lanes can control
NOTE
Each finger plays a chord of the scale on the note it points at (or glides freely with the scale off).
PITCH
Bends the whole slot smoothly, ±1 octave, held chords and strings too.
SPEED
Hold a grain touch and it drifts through the recording; centre is still, the ends go forwards or backwards up to twice the real speed.
SIZE
Grain length; in WAVE, the length of the pad's grains.
DENSITY
How many grains per second.
SPRAY
Scatters where the grains start.
AIR
Warm, breathy saturation with a high sheen.
BLOOM
Soft wavefolding: overtones that bloom.
GLASS
A glassy ring-modulated bell, tuned to the root.
DRIFT
A slowly wandering pitch.
DEPTH
Darker, with a sub on the root.
GRACE
Pushes DRIFT, DEPTH and AIR at once.

Questions

What is PNEUMA?

PNEUMA is a breathing voice instrument for iPhone, iPad and Mac made by Æsboe. It turns your voice or any recording into soft, airy chords and pads that you play with touch and tilt.

Can I play PNEUMA from a MIDI keyboard or in my music app?

Yes. Connect a USB, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi MIDI keyboard; MPE is supported. PNEUMA is also an Audio Unit instrument, installed together with the app: on iPhone and iPad it works in GarageBand, Logic Pro for iPad, AUM, Cubasis and Loopy Pro. On a Mac with Apple silicon, get it from the Mac App Store with the same Apple ID (it's the same purchase) and play it in Logic Pro, GarageBand, MainStage, Ableton Live 11.3 or later and REAPER. Cubase, Pro Tools and Bitwig Studio can't load it.

How do I record into PNEUMA inside a music app?

Add Æsboe: PNEUMA FX as an effect after an instrument or audio input, route MIDI to it, and tap REC IN. Tap it again to stop. The take goes into the first empty slot, up to a minute long.

Where can I get PNEUMA?

PNEUMA is on the App Store for iPhone, iPad and Mac. One purchase covers all three, with no subscription and no in-app purchases.

How is PNEUMA different from VISCERA?

They share the same engine. VISCERA is dark and aggressive; PNEUMA is ethereal and soothing.

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